Summer 2010 - July

4th of July weekend

I picked up Jared from EFY bright & early on the morning of July 3rd. Then we all went over to Seattle to spend the day with our good friends from dental school - Judson & Amelie Werner. They have a great condo right on Lake Washington. The kids LOVED spending time out on their boat - wakeboarding and tubing. And I had fun watching from the dock and holding their adorable baby, Tristen.

The next day after church, we drove down to Kent to spend Independence Day with my brother's wife's family. They were so gracious to let us join their festivities at their house on Lake Meridian. We ate tons of great food, and the kids played in the grass by the lake until it got dark. Then we watched an amazing fireworks display over the lake. Many thanks to the Sorenson's for allowing us to crash their party!!

Since it was so late by the time the fireworks were over, we spent the night in a hotel and made a little mini-vacation out of it. The kids swam in the hotel pool all the next morning, then we did a little shopping in Seattle before heading home to get Micah off to . . .

Boy Scout Camp

This was his first (and hopefully last!) year of Boy Scout Camp. Since Jared just spent 2 weeks away, we decided that he would stay home & Micah would take his place at Scout Camp. Thankfully, one of Micah's best friends was also at the camp and they had a good time tenting together. There were the usual pranks and trashy "boy talk," but he came home mostly unscathed. :-)

Jared's Much-Needed Haircut

WHY is it such a pain in the neck to convince a 13-year old boy that it's TIME TO GET A HAIRCUT!?!? He's always happy with the end result, but it's like dragging a lamb to the slaughter to get him into the salon.

FIFA WORLD CUP 2010

We can't forget that much of the first half of July was spent glued to the TV, watching the amazing games of the 2010 World Cup! We were all bummed to watch the U.S. get eliminated, but we sure enjoyed watching all the other teams compete. Now we can't wait for World Cup 2014 in Brazil!!

Dӧner

One of our most favorite foods while we lived in Turkey was dӧner. In fact, we loved it so much that Nathan bought his own dӧner machine so that we could make it ourselves back in the states. Of course, it's quite labor-intensive & time-intensive, so we rarely pull it out. But when a great new friend moved to the island who just so happens to be Turkish, AND who has a Turkish cousin living with him who just so happens to be a cook . . . well, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to have them come over & fire up the 'ol dӧner machine! It was YUMMY! But ohhhh, how it made us miss Turkey. :-(

Chilly Hilly

Jared has been training for the past few months for a 250-mile bike trip that he will be doing in August (stay tuned for that report). Since he & his friend, Harrison, had to miss a few of the scheduled training rides this spring, they were required to do the legendary Chilly Hilly course on Bainbridge Island as a butt-killing, thigh-burning make-up ride. Their good friend, Kylie, volunteered to accompany them. I offered to drive the route with them, going on ahead and waiting every 5 miles or so with a quick snack to keep their energy up. Our island is extremely hilly, so it was a very tough course. I have no doubt that they are now fully prepared for their up-coming trip.

Berry Picking at Graysmarsh Farm

My sis-in-law, Sloan, and 3 of her kids - Jessica, Rachel & Tanner - came up one weekend in July. We drove up to Sequim on Saturday and spent a few hours picking raspberries at Graysmarsh Farm. Then we came home and had a massive jam-making session. We used no-sugar pectin, so it is much healthier than store-bought jam. And MUCH tastier! I made 24 pints!

Crossfire Cup (and Tyee Cup)

Jared & Micah both had soccer tournaments in July, both on the same weekend, both on different sides of Puget Sound. I watched Jared's tournament (the Crossfire Cup) in Kirkland, while Nathan went to Micah's tournament (the Tyee Cup) in Gig Harbor. I love watching my boys play soccer and they both did a great job! Jared plays Left Mid and was a key player in most of his team's goals. Micah plays Left Mid & Goalie. He scored the winning goal in his first match, then spent the second match in goal. They both played their best and I was so proud of them! They also had extra fans cheering for them - Nathan's sister, Kendra, and her kids were visiting that weekend and cheered on Micah. And my parents were in town on Saturday and cheered on Jared. Every time he made a play, they would shout, "That's my grandson! Go Jared!!" It's a good thing he doesn't embarrass easily. :-) Actually, they both loved the attention.

Hubbles Visit

As I mentioned, Nathan's sister, Kendra, and her 3 kids - Whitney, Sydney & Matthew - came to visit for a week the end of July. We spent the weekend at Lake Sutherland, then hung out on Bainbridge for a few days. They are from Bakersfield, CA, so they were used to HOT summer weather. I think our mild weather was a nice change for the first few days, but by the end of their visit they were all wearing sweatshirts and shivering. We had fun going to the beach (although, again, our beaches are a far-cry from CA beaches. They laughed at our "waves" which are really just the small surf created when a big boat passes off-shore.). We also watched movies, ate Mora's ice cream, and the boys played hours and hours and hours of video games.

Pig Roast
And finally, our last Hurrah for July . . . on Saturday, July 31, we went out to our friends' house in Kingston for their daughter's 18th birthday party. They are the ultimate do-it-yourselfers. Their garden could feed a small army, they shoot bear out their back door, they build koi ponds and kiwi arbors, remodeled their kitchen with the most amazing rare woods, they raise bees . . . and they dug a pit in their yard, built a motorized roasting spit, and roasted an entire pig for the bday party. It was so delicious!